A Simple Photograph
by IAmKayDubs
Summary: Being in the army, Eren knows how important personal belongings can be. But after he stops to pick up a photo of someone he does not know, he finds that the photo has saved his life in an odd way.


The sound of gunfire is what always surrounded me.

It was a part of my life, at this point. With every breath I took, I could hear the bullets flying from guns and the shells hitting the ground, even in the distance.

I crouched behind a clump of bushes, checking the area around me. The jungle was thick and overgrown, giving both a sense of protection, as there were lots of things you could use to shield yourself, and a sense of wariness, as there were numerous hiding places.

I decided it was safe to move along. I stood up slowly and crept along the tree line, keeping my eyes peeled for any enemies.

As I walked, my feet made little sound. After a moment, however, I heard something softly crunching under my foot. I snatched my foot away, instinctively, before noticing it was just a photograph.

I checked my surroundings once more before bending quickly to pick it up. I studied the glossy yet dusty photo, turning it around between my fingers.

It depicted a gruff looking man, seemingly unhappy about having his picture taken. He held his hand out in front of him slightly, fingers and hand spread wide, trying to shield himself from the camera. His black hair fell carefully, but was just messy enough to look normal.

What I really noticed, however, was the eyes. The mans eyes shone brightly, despite being a bit small. The stunning grey was new to even me, it was a stormy color I didn't think eyes could be. They were sharp, and they looked like they could be menacing if the owner chose for them to be.

I decided to keep the picture with me. Even though I wished I could keep it for myself, I actually planned to see if it belonged to someone back at camp. In this war, personal belongings are everything, I knew from experience.

I tucked the smooth picture into my breast pocket, before beginning my trek once again.

Before I even got three steps in, the ground rumbled. It shook profusely, so much that I had to grab onto the trunk of the nearest tree to keep my balance.

A man came running in from the side of the forest, one of the men on my side. He was panting slightly, and his fingers trembled.

"We need to get out, back to base. That was a bomb that went off, about one minute that way." The man pointed down the path I had been planning to take.

My breath caught in my throat. One minute, huh...? If I hadn't stopped to pick up the photo, I would have been right near the explosion.

I would have been dead.

I didn't explain this to the other soldier, however. I just nodded and ran at his side, back to the base where we could alert people of the bomb, and prepare for future attacks.

I patted the photograph that was in my pocket as I ran, whispering thanks to whoever this man with the intriguing eyes was.

* * *

Six months after that, I was returning home. I was walking down the streets of my town, glad to be able to walk around without fearing for my life.

I had never found an owner to the photograph. I had asked everyone back at base, but nobody knew who the man was.

As I sat down on a bench outside a coffee shop, I saw someone walking down the street across from me that shocked me beyond belief.

The man from the photo.

Despite my wish to rest, I sprang up and started sprinting. There were hardly any cars on the road, so I made it across just fine. I grabbed the picture out of my pocket- it had begun to serve as a good luck charm to me once I decided to keep it after it was not claimed- and tapped the man on the shoulder.

He turned around to stare at me wordlessly. His eyes were even more piercing in real life.

I held up the picture, standing up a bit straighter.

"Thank you. You saved my life."

"Save you? How?" The mans voice was a deep rumble.

"This photo. I stopped to pick it up and I saved me from being near a bomb. I'm in the army."

The man didn't speak for a moment.

When he did, his voice gave off a kind tone, despite being low and a bit gravely.

"I'm glad then... As an ex soldier, I'm glad my life meant something. I'm glad it helped you." The man gave a tiny, near unnoticeable smile, as he placed his hand securely on my shoulder. "My life was useful... That's all I could ever need."

* * *

A/N: Ahh, more ereri! I have quite a few stories written for them, most of them are pretty short, but it's still more than I usually write for a couple (besides Rintori, that is!)

Not much to say about this, besides the fact that the prompt is from either Otpprompts or Imagineyourotp (if you don't know, I screencap prompts fro these blogs on my ipod and I crop them, and some of them have the users cropped out, so I'm not sure which it comes from!) Either way, check out both of these amazing blogs! :D

Alright, I think that's it! I hope you enjoyed, rate and review if you did! :)

Thanks!

-KayDubs


End file.
